The vast majority of heating elements in xerographic fusers, substrate pre-heaters, and solid-ink transfuse systems are conventional tungsten/halogen bulb devices, which have approximately a 3000 K color temperature.
Photonic crystals have already been developed as indicated in, for example, Reference 1 (“Revolutionary tungsten photonic crystal may provide more power for electrical devices,” Sandia National Laboratories, Jul. 7, 2003 (http://www.sandia.gov/news_center/news_releases/2003/other/plank-Lin.html)), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. These photonic crystals have properties interesting and valuable to heating in the xerographic and solid-ink devices mentioned above.
For example, when heated with an electric current, they emit very intense radiation within a narrow band of Infrared (IR) wavelengths. The wavelengths may be tuned by altering the size of the rods and the spacing between them. The larger the dimensions, the longer the wavelength. The emissions in these tuned bands are ten times more intense in the IR than expected by traditional physics (black body radiation), and light emitters made from these photonic crystals may radiate at a 60% efficiency (conversion of electrical energy to IR radiation) compared to 8% efficiency for ordinary light bulbs and 25% for (low intensity) LEDs.
Finally, these photonic crystals may absorb broadband thermal radiation and reemit the energy in narrow bands, and the devices appear to violate Plank's blackbody radiation law.